White Label WordPress Support: How We Took Over 20+ Clients From a UK Agency’s Departing Developer

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20+ clients supported under the agency’s brand | 3 hours average response time to a new request | 0 clients lost since we joined the agency’s team

A marketing agency from the Midlands, without its own development team, was about to lose the developer who handled all of its WordPress work. Instead of hiring a replacement, the agency chose a white label partner. After a month-long handover we took over its WordPress care plan for more than 20 clients, along with new website builds. A year later we work as the agency’s development team, and no client has left since we joined.

Daily white label hours log: time assigned to each agency client, 3-hour average response time, a PM with a backup and 3 developers

The situation

For years the agency relied on one experienced developer. He handled the WordPress side of the agency’s care plan and brought in subcontractors when there was more work than he could manage. The arrangement worked, but it was expensive and it all depended on one person.

 

When the developer announced he was moving to a new job, the agency had to decide quickly: hire someone new, or hand the work to a white label partner. Whoever came next would have to understand more than 20 live websites, built in Elementor, Gutenberg and ACF, and many of them on the agency’s own starter theme. That theme had been developed over several years and had little documentation.

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    A month of handover

    We work in a very similar way ourselves, with our own starter theme for client sites, so we quickly understood the logic behind the agency’s setup.

     

    For the first month we worked alongside the departing developer. We met several times, and he gradually handed over client after client. We also worked together on current tasks, which was the fastest way to learn the more complex features of the starter theme. By the time he left, we were already handling the day-to-day work on our own.

    How we worked with the agency?

    • Inside the agency’s tools

      We work in the agency’s CRM, which notifies us whenever a new request comes in, and talk to its team on Slack in real time. Some clients write directly to the agency’s support email, which is forwarded to our inboxes. Once a week we meet with the agency to go through the key projects.
    • Under the agency’s brand

      When a client needs to talk to a developer, we talk to them directly, as part of the agency’s team. Clients deal with one company, the one they signed the contract with.
    • A team that knows the projects

      The agency has a dedicated project manager on our side, with a second project manager as backup. Three developers know the agency’s projects well enough to start a task without a long onboarding. For recurring tasks we write step-by-step procedures, so anyone on the team can pick them up.
    • Hours reported per client

      At the end of every working day we log the hours used and assign them to the client the work was done for. At the end of the month the agency gets a full report of all hours, including the hours we don’t bill: task management, estimates and internal communication. Over the first year these unbilled hours added up to 178.
    • What we look after

      Under the care plan we handle WordPress updates, security, backups and monitoring, as well as hourly development work for the agency’s clients. Beyond the plan, the agency also hands us new websites to build from scratch as fixed price projects, custom features and some server management. That adds up to about 50 hours a month of ongoing support, plus the fixed price projects.
    • When the agency’s PM was suddenly unavailable

      At one point one of the agency’s project managers was unexpectedly out, and the rest of the team was fully booked. A large project was left without anyone managing it. We were copied on the PM’s emails, so we noticed that the client hadn’t received a progress update in 10 days.


      We didn’t wait to be asked. We took over communication with the client, sent the missing updates and kept the project moving until the agency’s team was back at full strength. The client didn’t experience a break in communication.
    Daily white label hours log: time assigned to each agency client, 3-hour average response time, a PM with a backup and 3 developers

    Results

    3 hours
    Average response time to a new request. Clients no longer wait in a queue for one busy developer.

     

    0 clients lost
    No client has left the agency’s care plan since we joined.

     

    2,160 hours
    Delivered in tasks and projects during the first year of cooperation.

     

    Faster turnaround changed how clients use the care plan. Requests no longer wait in a queue behind one busy developer, so clients send more of them, and the agency earns more from the same plan. Estimates come back faster too. When a client asks how long a new feature will take, the agency can give an answer within days instead of waiting until a developer is free to look at it.

    The agency also has more flexibility than it had with a single developer. When several clients need work at the same time, we split the tasks between developers who already know the projects. When a larger build comes in, it goes to us as a fixed price project without slowing down the ongoing support. Fewer people on the agency’s side are involved in day-to-day contact with clients, so the team can spend that time on its own work.

     

    “When I first heard about the idea of working with a white label agency, I was sceptical. Seeing how you work, I know it was the right choice.”

     

     

    What happens next

     

    The cooperation is ongoing. We look after more than 20 of the agency’s clients and build new websites for it as fixed price projects.

    Scope of work

    • Handover from the previous developer
    • WordPress security monitoring
    • WordPress maintenance: updates, backups, monitoring
    • Hourly development support for 20+ clients
    • Work on the agency’s ACF Pro starter theme
    • New website builds (fixed price)
    • Custom features development
    • SSL, Server and domain management
    • Daily per-client hour reporting and monthly reports
    • Procedure documentation for recurring tasks